Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-02-27
FROM THE NILE.
Few JERSEY rHzoroarAss uHwRAp
A MUMMY.
xrbalmed in the Time Of Moses, an
Egyptian Princess Serves & Gu
rious Purpose at Last.

A New Brunswick IN. J.) special
mys: About hundred persons, mostly
officers OF seminaries and colleges, as
scmbled in Suydam- Hall chapel, con-
pected with the Theological Seminary,
Tuesday afternoon, in response to invita-
ton, and celebrated Westinghouse birth
day by listening 10 Professor Lansing
talk on Naturalization. Then they
watched him unwrap mummy. When
he said il was female mummy some OF
The irrcverent students suggested that it
might be the remains of Martha, the
Mother of her Country but Professor
Lansing said the mummy was that OF q
Royal priestess of the Nineteenth Dynas-
", or b. G. 400. She was about con-
temporaneous with Moses, and perhaps
hshed him out from among the bull
rushes.
Her rank, said the Professor, was in
aicated by the picture of an asp on the
lower side of the coffin, for on the asp's
head was the double crown of Upper
and Lower Egypt. Before unwrapping
the very decidedly deceased he gave a
brief description OF the burial customs
of the ancient Egyptians. When death
occurred il was proclaimed on the street
with loud lamentations by some rela-
tive of the dead. As soon as death oc-
Cured the body was taken to the en-
balmer's, and the family selected a
coffin according to their means.
There were four orders OF embalm-
ers-s cribes, dissectors, embalmers, and
undertakes. The process occupied
seventy or seventy-two days. First,
the brains were drawn out through the
nostrils with hook then an incision
was made in the side and the contents
of the body uncovered and placed in
four porcelain jars-the great intes-
tines in one, the small intestines in an
other, the heart in a third, and the
liver in fourth. Each jar had a cover.
with representations respectively of
man, an ape, o iackal, and q hawk.
which were presented before the gem
of the under world In other cases the
intestines, after having been embalmed,
were returned to the body, in which
case wax figures representing the four
gent were placed within the body.
There were four methods of embalm-
ing. This mummy was probably filled
with bitumen, asphaltum, aromatics,
&c. The cost Of enbalming body in
this style would be about ESQ. After
lying for long time in natant baths it
was wrapped in linen cloths three
inches wide. Sometimes a thousand
yards of such bandages we're used. 1t
was then inclosed in cGrtOuchS Of
linen and other substances, then in an
outside mummy coffin, and then taken
to the tomb.s The process of mumify-
ing was discontinued about A. ID. 600.
1t began before the earliest dawn of
history. The first discovery of a mum
my was that of the builder of the second
pyramid, a King of the Fourth Dy-
nasty.
The outside of the mummy case I'M
der examination was adorned in the |
upper part with gilt effigy of the face
of the deceased priestess ; next below |
was n painting of the ornaments she |
wore in life, pictures of the Goddess
Nut, protectress of the dead, and with
outspread wings, being at each side.
Then came a view of the mummy her
self stretched on bier, with the God
Osiris, lord of the under world, mourn
ers, jackals, &c, and ON either side
hawks head. There was buried with |
this mummy a small white marble slab |
inscribed with hieroglyphics; also,
wooden and stone figures representing
Osiris and other personages. One
wooden figure was of the Fiad of Mem
phis, being the place where she
was buried. These were often
buried with the mummies scara-
b@i, short papyras rolls containing pas
sages from the Book of the Dead, &c.
After the body was placed in the tomb |
there was funeral procession of the !
family, mourners, priests, slaves bear
ing the hearse, priests offering incense,
and other persons. Every large city
had a lake near it. Arriving at the
edge OF the lake the corpse was set
down in the presence of forty-two
Judges, and any one &ho had griev-
ance might accuse the dead. If he
was indicated the body was ferried
across the lake to the place of tombs,
and there laid away in q sepulchre
hewn out of the solid rock, suitably
inscribed on the outside, carefully
sealed, and then covered over with
sand so as not to be detected.
Psychologists generally believed that
embalming was practiced to preserve
the body for the resurrection. The soul
lived in Hades for time, assumed va
rious forms to overcome the various
enemies and conflicts of the under
world, then was identified with Osiris,
and after entering the judgment hall
and being judged, approved, and JUS
tilted, was admitted into the blessed
world, at which time the soul came
back to the body, all the members were
reunited, and lived the life everlasting.
The process of unwrapping followed,
in which Professor Lansing was assisted
by DIR. Van Vranken, of Albany, and
Mr.. Van Dyke, Librarian of the Semi
nary. First was a layer of carefully
painted linen, then hundreds of yards
OF narrow linen bands, with an occa-
sional sheet of linen all yellow with age
and smelling of bitumen. At last the
royal Priestess lay revealed, black and
hideous thing, shrivelled 10 a mere
skeleton. Her arms were crossed de-
voutly on her breast, the muscular It's
sue and some of the flesh adhering to
the bones, but soaked in bitumen. No
valuables were found, and no papyrus
rolls. The unwrapping occupied two
hours, and when through Professor
Lansing and his assistants were covered
with yellow dust.